Nagpur: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has unearthed an organised gang involved in e-ticketing racket and arrested 11 agents. 101 e-tickets worth over Rs 1.50 lakh have been seized from their possession. The gang had created parallel IRCTC website in the name of ANMS and Red Mirchi and black marketing the railway tickets.
In the two-day drive, RPF has raided offices of 80 authorised agents in Nagpur. 12 cases were registered and 11 dalals (agents) were rounded up. All these agents were IRCTC-registered agents. But 11 of the agents had created an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) agent ID to book an e-ticket. Due to the illegal booking of tickets, the Indian Railways incurred losses running in several crores.
The accused took Rs 200-500 extra from each passengers, according to investigation. 11 agents have been arretsed and 101 e-tickets worth over Rs 1.50 lakh have been seized from their possession.
The special drive was undertaken under the guidance of SECR’s Divisional Security Commissioner Ashutosh Pandey by RPF Inspectors Anil Patil, H R Yadav, Rajiv Kumar, Vikas Kumar, S Dutta, Sub-Inspectors CKP Tembhurnekar, P L Jumde, Usha Bisen, Mohd Mugishuddin, M B Shahu.
The arrested dalals include Mohd Mustafa Sheikh Mehboob (Uppalwadi), Gaurav Kavatiya (Nandanvan), Chetan Girhepunje (Bhandara), Nareshkumar Laghani, Ashfaq Khan Manoj Alone, Ganesh Suryavanshi, Mayur Gajbhiye (All Chhindwara), Sanjaypratap Singh (Seoni), Akshay Kumar (Mandla) and Kishore Kumar (Ragnandgaon).
According to RPF, those arrested in this connection had hacked the railway website and forged its ticket booking software to book e-tickets. According to Railway officials, it takes two minutes to book one ticket and if the counter is open at 11 am, within 10 to 15 seconds, the accused used to book nearly 150 to 200 tickets. During the operation, the RPF also seized software for creating fake Aadhar and PAN cards and other government documents.
